Scientific objectives
Because of the apparition of resistance phenomenon’s regarding current treatments of pathologies (cancer, microbial infections, metabolic diseases), and the too weak selectivity of the current molecules, there is a need for more research and for the development of new substances. In order to rise to these major challenges, the team’s objective is the conception of pharmacological or nutritional actives of natural origin, mainly derived from or inspired by marine resources (micro- and macro-algae, bacteria).
In our team strategy, different molecular families are obtained (glycomolecules, peptides, polyphenols, pigments, heterocyclic compounds) by environmentally friendly methods, in accord with green chemistry. The biological aims and the selected targets (enzymes, receptors) are compounds with different functions such as antitumor, cardio metabolic regulators, anti-infective, and dermo-actives. These natural compounds, coming from marine organisms, plants, and agro-resources are placed in one of the 3 following banks, i.e. a chemical library, an extract bank, or a strain library. These three laboratory resource banks can be enhanced with new molecular structures by the sifting of isolated environmental resources (harvest’s algae or culture‘s algae for instance) or complete ecosystems rich in microbial metabolisms that have a high biotechnological potential.